England on red alert as Welsh dragon starts to breathe fire

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THE clash of the hemispheres in Australia over the weekend lifted the fifth rugby World Cup to new heights, though without much input from England. Instead, their Celtic cousins threw down the gauntlet in two games of marvellous diversity, Ireland taking the host nation and holders of the Webb Ellis Trophy to the limit and Wales, with as lustrous a performance as they have given in years, handing the much-fancied New Zealand team the shock of their lives in Sydney yesterday. Suddenly, England’s expected smooth procession into the last four is littered with Welsh potholes.